As forecast several days ago, unusual warmth has flooded the eastern half of the U.S. this week. Temperatures from the Great Plains to the East Coast have been running 10 to 20 degrees above normal.

On Tuesday, Minneapolis hit 71°F, Boston was 73°F, and Pittsburgh topped out at 74°F. Detroit set a new high temperature record for the date, reaching 76°F. The pattern continues into Thursday, with warm air surging across the Great Lakes and continuing into New England. And in an overall warming world, these types of fall warm spells are likely to become more frequent.

Climatologically, when this type of warmth settles in this late in the year, it usually does not end in a whimper. Surges of cold air often follow, and given the warm air previously in place, strong thunderstorms should be expected before that transition.

Additionally, that warmer air leads to more evaporation, meaning more fuel for stronger thunderstorms. It is one of the reasons that fall brings a secondary peak to the annual severe weather year.

One of Britain's oldest trees has changed its gender, at least in part, according to botanists.

The Fortingall yew in Perthshire, Scotland, is thought to be anywhere from 2,000 to 5,000 years old and has long been identified as a male tree. Max Coleman with the Royal Botanic Garden of Edinburgh wrote in a blog post last month though that he had observed red berries on the historic tree, indicating that it switched to have some female parts:

Closer examination reveales the Fortingall Yew is a male tree. Yews are normally either male or female and in autumn and winter sexing yews is generally easy. Males have small spherical structures that release clouds of pollen when they mature. Females hold bright red berries from autumn into winter. It was, therefore, quite a surprise to me to find a group of three ripe red berries on the Fortingal yew this October when the rest of the tree was clearly male. Odd as it may seem, yews, and many other conifers that have seperate sexes, have been observed to switch sex. Normally this switch occurs on part of the crown rather than the entire tree changing sex. In the Fortingall Yew it seems that one small branch in the outer part of the crown has switched and now behaves as female.

Yew trees, specifically the species Taxus baccata, are usually considered dioecious, meaning trees are either male or female only. But under rare circumstances they can become monoicous, having both pollen and egg-bearing structures on one plant.

"It's a rare occurrence ... rare and unusual and not fully understood," Coleman said, according to Agence France-Presse. "It's thought that there's a shift in the balance of hormone-like compounds that will cause this sex-change. One of the things that might be triggering it is environmental stress."

The crash of Kolavia Flight 7K9268 from Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, to St. Petersburg, Russia, on October 31st killed all 224 passengers and crew, making it Russia's worst ever aviation accident.

The Airbus A321 disappeared from radar over the Sinai desert 23 minutes after takeoff. No emergency signal was broadcast by the pilots. The plane began a rapid, almost vertical, descent from around 31,000 ft until it disappeared from radar at around 28,000 ft. The plane's debris and passenger bodies were spread over a 20 sq km area, with one 3-year-old passenger allegedly found 8 km from the main crash site. This strongly suggests that the plane broke up in mid-air.

Russian aviation experts have discounted the idea that the plane was shot down by a missile or that a bomb exploded on board. A technical fault that could have caused the plane to suddenly plummet out of the sky and incapacitated the pilots before they could send a distress signal is also implausible. Even if both engines failed simultaneously, the plane would still have been 'airworthy' enough to allow the flight crew to glide the plane to an emergency landing over the course of at least 25 minutes.

Something else, something extremely violent, sudden and catastrophic befell the plane and its passengers. Viktor Yung, deputy director of the airline, echoed this assessment when he said today that only an "external force" could have caused the plane to suddenly plummet from the sky.

"As the catastrophic incident started to develop, the crew members were rendered completely incapable. This explains why they didn't attempt to contact air traffic and report the incident happening on board," Yung said. Aleksandr Smirnov, who supervises the company's fleet, said that "the only possible explanation is a mechanical force acting on the aircraft, there is no combination of system failures that could have broken the plane apart in the air."

Snowy owls are migrating south for winter, but many may not survive.

Healing Haven Wildlife Rescue has received 16 calls for snowy owls in distress, but only half of the owls have made it to the facility, located near Dorintosh, Sask.

"By the time people are finding them, they are just so far gone, they are in an extremely emaciated state. And often just the stress of picking them up and driving them here is enough to kind of tip them over the edge, and they don't make it," said Mark Dallyn, the founder of Healing Haven Wildlife Rescue.

He says year to year, he may encounter calls for starving snowy owls, because of the boom and bust of lemming populations, the predator's main food source.

"But this year is different. It's affecting both young owls and adult owls as well. And it's affecting way more than we're used to," Dallyn said.

A large, dead blue whale measuring approximately 80 feet and weighing nearly 20 tons made landfall in Ophir, about 7 miles north of Gold Beach on Monday, according to Russ Stauf, Rogue Watershed manager.

The rare beaching attracted a crowd all day Tuesday, with motorists parking along Highway 101 at the Ophir rest stop, some walking across the sand for a closer look.

The stench of the large marine mammal was oppressive from more than 100 yards away. That didn't stop a group of preschool children, including one child who was clutching a furry Orca whale toy, from trekking along a winding path to the beach to see the whale up close. They were joined by a woman who stood inside the curl of the huge, upright tail.

Mystery surrounds a loud noise which occurred at night over Evesham with no one able to come up with an explanation. The noise was hard by scores of residents in and around the Vale with many posting their experience on Facebook.

The sound has been described as ranging from a hurricane coming down the chimney, to a sonic boom, loud bangs or a roaring noise. Several people said they looked outside and saw lights. The noise was heard around 8pm on Friday October 30. Another said that though the noise appeared to come from the sky, it was felt as vibration under foot and through the building.

Posting on an Evesham forum, one man said: "It was not fireworks or thunder. We went out to look from Hampton and it was like Northern Lights over Beckford way. We watched the changing colours in the night clouds. It was the most weird sky I have ever seen with strange sounds too."

More than 205 responses were posted on social media with many saying they had heard something around Harvington, Sedgeberrow, Offenham and beyond. A number said they had also seen colours in the sky at the time while others said there was just sound. Some believed it was thunder or fireworks.

Chris Livingston, from the Worcester Astronomical Society, said he had heard nothing about the reports and said it was the last night of the Orionids meteor shower, but doubted they would have caused a noise as described. Michael Morris, also from the Worcester Astronomical Society added: "Only a very large meteoroid would cause the effect experienced. Such a meteoroid would glow brighter than the sun and would have been seen by thousands of people. So no, it is incredibly unlikely to be anything astronomical."


David Galloway, a seismologist for the British Geological Survey in Edinburgh, said he had checked all the data recorded for the Evesham area and there was no reading at all for a tremor or earthquake. "If it was something atmospheric, such as a sonic boom or noise from an 'air quake', it is unlikely to be picked up with our equipment even if there was a vibration, rather like the effect a heavy lorry rumbling past your house. I have checked the date. There was certainly no recorded seismic activity in that area between the times of 7pm and 9pm on that evening."

An earthquake registering 5.2 on the Richter Scale hit near the Pandeglang Regency in Banten this afternoon. Tremors from the earthquake were reportedly felt in Jakarta.

The Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) reported that the earthquake occurred at 1:14pm today. The earthquake's epicenter was 88 km Southwest of Pandeglang, 10 km below sea level.

"There was an earthquake in Pandeglang with effects being felt in Jakarta," said Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB), as quoted by Vivanews today.

"There's no potential for a tsunami. We hope that citizens can remain calm."

Pandeglang is situated around 100 km to the west of Jakarta. Despite reports that the earthquake shook Jakarta as well, we must admit we didn't feel it at all.

A 3.2-magnitude earthquake jolted central Slovakia on the afternoon of November 3.

The epicentre of the quake is believed to have been located between the village of Brusno and the town of Brezno (Banská Bystrica Region). The locals admit that it scared them.

The tremor was recorded by seismic stations of the National Network of Seismic Stations and the Local Seisimic Station Eastern Slovakia. Slovak Academy of Sciences' Earth Science Institute will analyse the records and details concerning the perceived effects, the TASR newswire reported.

The local inhabitants concurred that the temblor felt like a gas blast, as though a blast wave had been generated, and thunder was heard.

"It was over very quickly," several locals told TASR.

Indonesia closed Bali airport, one of the country's busiest international terminals, until Thursday due to volcanic eruptions on Mount Rinjani on a nearby island, meteorological agency said on Wednesday.

Ngurah Rai airport in Denpasar and Selaparang airport in West Nusa Tenggara will be closed until Thursday and the situation will be re-evaluated before reopening, Indonesia's meteorological agency said in a statement.

"Tremors due to volcanic activities are continuously recorded and potential of more eruption is still high," it said. Mount Rinjani has been spewing ashes since last weekend.

Tens of thousands of travelers in Bali were stranded in July when the resort island's airport was closed due to volcanic eruptions on Mount Raung in East Java.

A third shark attack happened in the Bay of Inhambane in southern Mozambique for the past two months, resulting in a fisherman losing both arms, local news agency reported on Monday.

The attack happened on Sunday in shallow water of the bay, when the fisherman, who was fishing for prawns, pulled his nets ashore, according to the state-owned news agency AIM.

The victim was rushed to local hospital for treatment, but the shark had virtually severed both arms from his body, and the medical team believed there was no option but to amputate them.